iPhone 5 May Not Have A Bigger Screen. Here's Why

A report published last week by 9to5mac claimed that Apple may release an iPhone 5 smartphone with a screen diagonal higher than four inches, which means an increase of at least 11 per cent.

But as respected blogger John Gruber puts it, the report sounds like "b***s***" especially as it mentioned a longer and wider device; Gruber put forward his expert opinion that "I can see Apple putting a bigger display on a device of the same size. I can't see them making a bigger device."

And we believe he is right. Increasing the screen display of the iPhone 5 requires a tricky equilibrium that goes beyond the physical size of the device or of the screen itself.

For a start; if Apple wants to stick to the retina display moniker for a third generation, it will have to stick to a 326 pixel per inch pixel density and, for the sake of backward compatibility, offer a 3:2 screen ratio.

A 4-inch screen will have to be roughly 3.33 inches high and 2.22 inches wide (to respect the screen ratio) and currently the screen size of the iPhone 4 and 4S stands at 2.9 x 1.93 inches.

The iPhone 4 currently has a height of 4.5-inches and is 2.31-inches wide, and to maintain the same pixel density Apple would have to increase the resolution of the iPhone 5 to 1080x720 pixels at the very least.

So here's the conundrum, any increase in screen size will have to be accompanied by a proportional rise in resolution to keep the "retina display" label, and as it stands, bumping the screen size cannot happen unless there's a change in size.